Battle
by Sasswolf-Hale
Summary: Vane won't stop until his mate is safe, be it a bloody battle or a trick of wits. AU. T for language.


**VIXXY HERE! Got a new fic for you guys! Hope you like it! Remember! REVIEWS = LOVE!**

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The rain had stopped since she'd been captured. Staring out the rusted window bars at the 3/4 moon, Rainlily silently prayed that her mate was on the trail of Stryker's scent. No doubt the were-hunter had gotten a search party together. A sigh escaped her lips before a loud clang was heard against the door of her cell. Growling low to herself for being so distracted she hadn't heard the footsteps, she turned her head, her leather corset of black with ice blue ribbons giving the only other noise in her cell.

"What do you want, damn it?"

"H-hey. The she-wolf's got a tongue to her." the Daimon standing at the door grinned cockily, making Rainlily want to literally knock the souls out of the male. It was because of them that her bloodline, and the war between Katagarians and Arcadians existed.

"I'll ask you again, daimon. What. The hell. Do. You want?" Rainlily said, grinding her teeth as she kept her composure despite venom rolling of her tongue on the species of which she spoke to.

"The name, arcadian, is Deadros." the male growled, giving a faint smirk as the she-wolf cringed at the name. "Your little wolf friends won't be finding us anytime soon. So you might a well sleep."

"I know your little tricks, demon." Rainlily growled, her magic kicking in to form an invisible barrier around her. "And so long as I'm here, I'm not going to sleep." The ensuing hiss told her that she had been right, and the daimon had released a gas into the room seconds before she'd set up the barrier. Thank the gods she knew daimons well since Sakano's death. At the thought of her late brother, Rainlily sighed and moved to sit in a corner of the cell, where she hummed a sad song and waited for contact from Vane.

"Vane, the team's ready and we're waiting on you, man." Fang Kattalakis said as he entered the room. Recently waking from a coma, he had been working to get his strength back to where it had been before they'd gotten news that his brother's mate had been kidnapped. He looked at where his older litter mate stood silently, wondering what could be going through his brother's mind before Vane turned and looked at him, a hand clenched around a pendant that he wore constantly.

Vane looked into Fang's eyes, and he knew the mixed emotions he was feeling registered in his eyes, because Fang gave a hopeful smile.

"We'll find her, Vane. But we can't do it alone. You're more connected to Rain, so we need your help on this."

Vane nodded. "I know, brother. But it's a daimon that's been after her for years of her life, Fang. He's wanted her blood pretty much since she was born." His hand clenched around the pendant of a silver wing with a wolf etched into the feathers - one of the two pendants Rainlily had made. He had been given one while she wore the other, both of them proud to. The increasing worry wasn't helping him any, so he released the wing and started forward. "Let's go. The sooner we start, the sooner we'll find her and I can kill as many of these jerks as I can."

Fang nodded and followed his brother from the room, ready to search until commanded otherwise to stop. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was Fury, the leader of the pack that had once been Fang, Fury and Vane's father's.

"Vane, are you ready?" the once lone wolf inquired.

"Yes. And thank you for helping me, Fury."

Fury shrugged nonchalantly. "No big. Mates are a big deal in our world. I'm not sure why, but they are."

"I don't think you'd understand until you're there, Fury." Vane gave a slight smile. "I didn't know either until Rain came along." he paused. "Let's go. I need to find her before anything happens."

As the members of the search party began to leave, Fang came up alongside his brother. "You haven't mated yet?"

Vane shook his head. "With everything else going on, do you really think there was time?" he sighed near silently.

"That's why you're so worried, isn't it?" Fang questioned. "You haven't claimed each other."

"Precisely. If there had been time, we agreed our lives would be eternal hell without each other, so-"

"You two intend to bond, huh?" Fang asked with a grin.

"Yes, Fang." Vane answered quietly. "If not, there wouldn't be a point in living if one died."

"You really think so?"

"Like I told Fury, you have to be in the situation to really know." Vane reiterated with a faint smile. He exited the Peltier house and joined the four wolves ready for orders. With a brief nod, Vane changed into his wolf form, an all white timber wolf, before bolting off into the woods of New Orleans.

"Anything out of her yet?" a male voice asked, causing Rainlily to look up into the eyes of Stryker himself.

"Well, well, he does speak up." she said venomously, standing slowly.

"If I were you, I'd keep my smart ass mouth shut." Stryker assessed.

"Well I'm not you now, am I?" Rainlily snapped, crossing her arms.

"You've been in our holding for close to eight hours, how do you feel on that?"

"I feel the same as I did when your goons hit me - pissed the fuck off." Frozen ice blue orbs met swirling silver. "You know, you're eyes were blue last time I looked at your ugly fucking face. Are you trying to be like Acheron?" Her response was narrowed eyes that swirled and spun until they were the blue of when she'd met the immortal 400 years ago. "Ooo, a reaction of ticked off. Haven't seen that in a while, Stryker." What happened next gave Rainlily a sense of smug satisfaction.

"You little bitch!" Stryker growled, slamming against the bars of her cell door. The door itself shook and clanged as the guard grabbed his superior about the waist. "You think you're so damn smug just because you managed to escape me 400 years ago?"

"Actually, I think my brother and I escaped you many times over the 400 years you speak about." Rainlily smirked evilly, loving the reaction she was getting.

Stryker growled furiously and once more attacked the bars, reaching as far as his body would allow him, clawed fingers grabbing towards the Arcadian wolf. "You won't get away this time. I'm going to kill you! You and that Apollo-damned lykos of yours!"

"Vane has nothing to do with this battle, Stryker. Take your sexual frustrations out on someone else." Rainlily smarted back, dropping one arm to hang at her side while the free hand was placed at her hip. Her stance was pure cockiness. "I'd prefer you to use one of your ever-gay men, but if not, that's fine too." The room went still and silent as a pack of undeniable howls broke the surface of their hearing. "Vane." Rainlily breathed, a smile curving her lips at the thought of the male.

"Damn, how did they find us so soon?" Stryker cursed beneath his breath. "Send out the first commanders to beat them back!" He pulled from the guard's hold and glared at Rainlily. "Get her prepared for the ceremony. I'll make her watch the death of her beloved lykos." Turning on his heel, he stormed off down the hall, leaving the guard alone with the woman.

"Come on, wolf." the guard said, the tone implying it was meant to offend Rainlily, though it didn't. "Let's get you ready for the show." He reached into his coat and pulled out the key, unlocking the door before stepping into the cell.

_'Idiot.'_ Rainlily thought before swinging a kick at full speed at the daimon's head, landing the force and successfully knocking the male down. With angelic grace but demonic speed, she withdrew the daimon's sword and placing a foot on either side of the male's head. "Maybe you'll learn, my friend. Never-" she cut herself off and lowered the blade to the daimon's neck. "Never insult a were-hunter female and expect to get away when you enter their den." This said, she swiftly moved the sword to sever the head from the body before slamming the blade into the chest and into the blot mark and grinning as the body disintegrated into dust. "Now then, I need to get the hell out of here and help my mate. Please don't blow away." Her tone sarcastic, she grabbed her trench-coat from the cot and walked out as she slipped it onto her lithe form.

Vane led the group towards the hideout, a furious anger burning in his chest. Rainlily had been taken from him by the person who had hunted her for years, and there was no way he was going to stop until the she-wolf was once again in his arms where she belonged. Slowing down until the group was about 100 yards from the cave that led into the place Stryker was holding his mate, he tilted his head back and let a howl tear through the silence, the 3/4 moon shimmering along his white fur. Behind him, his two brother joined in, as did the rest of the group and for a moment after, they waited.

"Vane, we should get in there." Fang said, concern for his sister-in-law rising in his heart.

"No, wait." Vane contested,staring down. As if on cue, a single howl rose up from the area they were about to attack. "Remember, no holding back. They kidnapped her in cold blood, we'll kill as such in return. Until Rainlily is safe, we don't show mercy."

"Understood," Fury said. "You heard him. No mercy until the she-wolf is safe." The three accompanying katagari nodded and prepared for the ambush.

Rainlily charged through as many of the daimons as she could, swiftly stabbing each in turn in the right place. Her focus was on finding her mate and the group who had braved Stryker's holding cell in the backwoods of New Orleans. It didn't take her long to come close the entrance of a room, and she froze in her tracks. Stryker stood behind a row of guards, one such guard held a blade dangerously close to Vane's neck as the male quivered between his forms. She growled low in her throat.

"So what's it going to be, Arcadian?" Stryker asked, smirking the entire time, as his swirling blue/silver eyes watched her. "You or the lykos?"

Rainlily stared at the still flashing Vane. Her heart hurt to see him in such pain. Yet she knew there was no other choice. "Let me say goodbye at least." She said softly, eyes beginning to shimmer. The wounded Katagari stared at her. None could believe she would martyr herself for the good of the pack.

"Very well" Stryker cooed venomously, waving at his men to back away from the Lykos.

Rainlily approached slowly, kneeling beside the wolf and lowering her face to whisper in the male's ear. "We'll win this, Vane. Give me a moment to show my hatred and we can go." She healed him as she spoke. "Keep changing back and forth until then." She pulled away, a tear falling from her eye as she reached out to lay a hand atop the still changing male. "I love you." She said loud enough for the daimons to hear. She then stood and held her arms out so that she could be cuffed once more. "Do it quickly. I do not wish for him to see me suffer."

Stryker grinned as if he'd just won his battle for the world. "Take her." His men stepped closer to the Arcadian before she smirked. In a flash, she balanced on one foot to spin a high-speed kick at the heads of three of the soldiers, taking them out for a moment while she dropped down to one knee, pulling an athame from her boot and stabbing it into the hearts of the two remaining men before spinning to do the same to the three she'd knocked back.

"Sorry to cut things short, Stryker, but I have better things to do than die at your command." She rushed over to Vane, who sat up instantly, his mate's healing having worked, before he grabbed her hand and flashed them over to the bundle of hurt katagari. The group reached out to lay a hand against Rainlily's leg before they vanished together. Stryker screamed at the injustice of losing as he threw himself against a wall in frustration.

Rainlily took a few deep breaths as she focused on healing the last of the katagari. Fury, she recalled. Vane's litter mate. He was the epitome of his name, as she'd been able to hear about his own battles against the daimons that had kidnapped his brother's mate. Rainlily laughed as she listened, amused at the wolf's intense love of battle. "Sounds like you had fun, then."

"Probably more than he should have, seeing as they are our cousins." Vane's voice said softly. Rainlily turned in her chair and looked at the door.

"Yet they were not our cousins for trying to kill me, correct?" she inquired.

Vane nodded. "This is true," he said, shoving from the doorway. He crossed the room in four steps and pulled the female Arcadian to stand against him. "If you do not mind, Fury, I would like a moment alone with my mate." The answer was the other white timber wolf to stand and walk out. "Are you ready?"

Rainlily smiled. "The battle is over." She began. "Of course I'm ready."


End file.
